This is the moment a bomb killed one of Vladimir Putin’s top generals who deployed chemical weapons in Ukraine.
Dramatic images show the huge explosion that killed Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, 54, head of Vladimir Putin’s Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces.
Kirillov and his assistant Ilya Polikarpov, 33, walked out of the glass door of their Moscow apartment block when a nearby electric scooter exploded.
The general and his aide died on the spot in the bombing around 6 a.m. today.
Sources in Ukraine’s SBU security service have said he was a legitimate target and had committed war crimes by planning to use chemical weapons against kyiv troops.
A camera used to blow up Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov and his driver was installed in a shared vehicle, parked overlooking the door of their apartment building.
The lens was pointed at the entrance and was wrapped in cloth so that the equipment would not attract attention. The attacker could observe the scene over the Internet and trigger the explosion remotely, according to authorities.
Investigators removed two packages from the car, likely a camera and a charger.
Kirillov is believed to be the most prominent military officer killed since Russia launched its large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Dramatic images show the huge explosion that killed Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, 54, head of Vladimir Putin’s Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces.
Kirillov and his assistant Ilya Polikarpov, 33, were leaving through the glass door of their Moscow apartment block when an electric scooter exploded nearby.
It is understood the bomb was hidden inside an electric scooter when it detonated
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov (pictured), 54, died in the explosion as he left his apartment block with his driver or assistant, who was also killed.
Bodies are seen at the site of the explosion, in which the commander of the chemical, biological and radiological defense troops of the Russian armed forces, Igor Kirillov, and his assistant were killed.
The attack, claimed by a member of the Ukrainian SBU security service, came a day after kyiv accused Kirillov of overseeing the widespread use of banned chemical weapons against its troops in the conflict zone.
Accusing him in absentia of war crimes, the Ukrainian security service SBU said he was responsible for more than 4,800 documented cases of Russian troops using chemical munitions since the start of the large-scale war.
“Such a shameful end awaits all those who kill Ukrainians. “Retribution for war crimes is inevitable,” the SBU source said.
The Russian investigative committee confirmed the death of the army general and added that investigations had been opened into the attack. Russia has denied accusations that it used chemical weapons in Ukraine.
The British government will not mourn Kirillov, Prime Minister’s spokesman Keir Starmer said.
“We are not going to mourn the death of an individual who spread an illegal invasion and imposed suffering and death on the Ukrainian people,” he told reporters after the killing claimed by kyiv.
Photos posted on Russian Telegram channels showed a smashed entrance to a building littered with rubble and two bodies lying in blood-stained snow.
The front door of the house was torn off and the windows broken, while the general’s official car that had arrived to pick him up at six in the morning was also damaged.
The bomb was apparently hidden inside or on an electric scooter at the scene, which emergency crews could be seen inspecting.
The bomb is believed to have been detonated remotely, causing an explosion equivalent to approximately 300 grams of TNT, according to investigative reports cited by the Russian news service TASS.
Two body bags can be seen after bomb was detonated outside Moscow apartment
The explosion tore through the entrance to the apartment and damaged the facade of the building.
Two bodies can be seen as bystanders watch emergency crews at the scene.
Footage taken after the explosion shows a smashed car as emergency crews rushed to the scene.
Investigators work at the scene of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who was killed by an explosive device placed near a residential apartment block in Moscow, Russia, on December 17, 2024.
The Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal case after the explosion at Kirillov’s building on Ryazansky Prospekt in Moscow.
Investigators confirmed the deaths of two men and said a suspect in the case is being identified. The second man killed was identified only as Ilya Polikarpov, Kirillov’s aide.
“The liquidation of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of the radiological, chemical and biological defense troops of the Russian Armed Forces, is a special operation of the SBU,” an agency source told AFP.
The deadly explosion came hours after the SBU said Kirillov had been charged with using banned chemical weapons.
He was accused of planning to use K-1 grenades loaded with banned irritants, CS and CN, as confirmed by two laboratories affiliated with the International Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
They were deployed by FPV drones, with the aim of forcing Ukrainian soldiers to come out of the trenches and shoot directly.
It was alleged that the weapons cause severe irritation of mucous membranes, including the eyes and respiratory tract.
This had led to the hospitalization of some 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers since the Russian invasion began.
The SBU said: ‘The Security Service has documented war crimes committed by Russian Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of the radiological, chemical and biological defense troops of the Russian Armed Forces.
‘The official is responsible for the massive use of banned chemical weapons by Russian militants against the Defense Forces on the eastern and southern fronts of Ukraine.
“On Kirillov’s orders, since the beginning of the large-scale war, more than 4,800 cases have been recorded in which the enemy used chemical munitions.”
Russian police can be seen setting up a cordon around the body bags after the explosion.
The front door of the house was torn off and the windows were broken, while the general’s official car that had arrived to pick him up at 6 in the morning was also damaged.
The general was killed in a powerful explosion as he left his apartment building. In the photo: the site of the explosion.
Kirillov, who was named head of Russia’s nuclear defense forces in April 2017, was under sanctions from several countries, including the United Kingdom and Canada, for his role in Ukraine.
Participated in the creation and adoption of the TOS-2 Tosochka heavy flamethrower system.
He was also known for spreading conspiracy theories about Western use of chemical and biological weapons in Ukraine.
In March 2022, he made a presentation at the Ministry of Defense about alleged American biolabs in Ukraine that are developing projects to spread biological weapons using bats, birds and even mosquitoes.
Kirillov also accused Ukraine of provocations using toxic chemicals, including a “dirty bomb.”
In August he stated, without providing evidence: “The facts of the simultaneous supply of toxic chemicals and means of protection against them indicate an attempt to carry out large-scale provocations using the psychotropic warfare agent BZ during the conflict.”
Kirillov’s death is the latest in a series of recent assassinations of high-ranking Russian scientists and military leaders.
Five days ago, Mikhail Shatsky, a designer at the Mars Design Bureau who had been actively working on improving the Russian Kh-59 cruise missile, was shot.
Kirillov had served as Chief of the Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops of the Russian Armed Forces since 2017.
And in late November, Russian naval commander Captain Valery Trankovsky, 47, was killed in a car bomb attack in Sevastopol.
In the photo above, Russian naval commander Trankovsky appears murdered.
His death came three days after that of notorious Russian prison torturer and murderer Sergey Yevsyukov, 49, who had run the Olenivka prison, where Ukrainian prisoners of war were abused. He died when his Toyota Land Cruiser exploded in a car bomb in Donetsk.
And in late November, Russian naval commander Captain Valery Trankovsky, 47, was killed in a car bomb attack in Sevastopol.
A major search has been launched for the attacker who is believed to have carried out orders from Ukrainian intelligence in killing Kirillov.
Russian authorities suspect the attacker used a radio signal and was within range of the scene when the improvised explosive device was detonated.
CCTV footage was being closely examined.
A bomb disposal robot was brought to the site of the explosion, according to reports.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Kirillov “for many years, systematically, with facts in hand, exposed the crimes of the Anglo-Saxons.”
This included ‘NATO chemical weapons provocations in Syria’ and ‘British handling of banned chemicals and provocations in Salisbury and Amesbury’, as well as ‘the deadly activities of US biolabs in Ukraine and much more’.
‘I worked without fear. He didn’t hide behind his back. He marched with his visor open. For the country, for the truth. Brilliant memory, may his soul rest in peace.